Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1509336
VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P123 take time to answer. Hopes for 2024 will rest on current Repsol rider Joan Mir and new LCR re- cruit Johann Zarco, both former World Champions, alongside Taka Nakagami and whoever takes the potentially poisoned shilling to replace Marc next year. Will it be the hapless Iker Lecuona, who is hardly in a posi- tion to resist the invitation? Marc's decision to switch, breaking his existing HRC con- tract at who knows how much financial cost, is clearly founded on accelerating disillusionment with a bike that, step by step, has fallen behind the European opposition—a trait shared by Yamaha and sidestepped by the departed Suzuki. The conse- quence for the rider has not only been a slump in results but an accelerating number of crashes and consequential injuries. This year alone, despite missing five of 14 races, he has recorded the most crashes of anyone—20. Last year, 18, the year before 22. And several of them have hurt. No wonder he withdrew from both German and Dutch races this year—an uncomfortable ca- reer first. Thereafter he adopted a different approach: no more "riding over the limit, time to step back and keep riding just to get some information." Being Marc, that lasted only until a quirky circuit in India and bad conditions in Japan gave him a sniff of a result, and at the latter, he claimed his first podium in almost a year. Perhaps the greatest influ - ence came at home. Last year, younger brother Alex rounded out three declining years on the Honda with 21 reputation-dam - aging crashes and a dismal 17th overall. Switched to Ducati this year, he was transformed into a frequent challenger up front and on the podium at only the second round. One can only imagine the dinner-table conversations be - tween the two. Loyalty to one manufacturer has two dimensions. Firstly, the relationship with the motor- cycle is all the more important as skills become increasingly specialized. Secondly, long-term career implications. Staying on board opens the possibility of becoming a test rider and/or a brand ambassador after retire- ment. There are some notable precedents also for the ben- efits of jumping ship, going all the way back to the 1950s and Geoff Duke, who had won four 350/500 titles riding for Norton, then dumped the technically stuck-in-the-mud British factory to win two more on a Gilera. In the next two decades, Mike Hailwood narrowly failed to add to his tally of four 500-class MV Agusta titles after switching to Honda in 1966, but Giacomo Agostini (whose arrival at MV had precipitated Mike's depar - ture) was successful in adding an eighth crown to his MV tally on a Yamaha in 1975. The next to win titles on dif - ferent makes was Eddie Law- son, whose abrupt departure from Yamaha to Honda in 1989 upset his former employers and also seriously inconvenienced Honda incumbent Wayne Gard - ner, their 1987 champion. Rossi famously gave Honda the elbow to continue his run of seven titles at Yamaha in 2004, then broke the mold by switching to Ducati, a disastrous move that came close to ending his career. Then he returned to Yamaha and is an official brand ambassador, in spite of running Ducatis in his MotoGP team. And great rival Casey Stoner won his first title at Ducati and his second on a Honda. Marc easily equals all of these in stature, and his arrival at Ducati—even in a satellite team—will surely upset the incumbent riders. But will he beat them? And will he become the latest to win several titles on different makes? For my money, yes. CN THE SECOND CONCERNS HONDA, THE WINNINGEST MARQUE IN GRAND PRIX HISTORY. WHAT THE HELL WILL THEY DO NOW?